Device for registering and feeding objects to alpha magazine



Aug. 15, 1933.

DEVICE FOR REGISTERING AND FEEDING OBJECTS TO A MAGAZINE s. EvANs1,922,425

Original Filed Aug. 6, 1928 f A J0 V 24 /7 2 r 2259 ,I'

Fig. 2 M @zww/NmNm/e BY ATTORNEY Patented Aug. 15, 1933 UNITED STATESPATENT OFFICE OBJECTS TO A MAGAZINE Seth Evans, Houston, Tex., assignorto Hughes Tool Company, Houston, Tex., a Corporation of Texas Substitutefor abandoned application August 6, 1928, Serial No. 297,648. Dividedand this application October 491,308

4 Claims.

My invention relates to devices for arranging uniformly shaped objectsto register with the opening in a magazine formed to contain them; sothat said objects may be held properly positioned 6 for use.

Although not limited to any particular shape of object, I haveillustrated my invention as applied to the feeding of steel cutter teethto a containing magazine. These teeth are fiat sided, but of irregularshape, and in use, must be fed automatically to a welder in properposition for application to the tool upon which they are designed to befixed. Such a welder is shown in my copending application No. 323,737,filed December 4th, 1928, since matured into Patent No. 1,839,384, datedJanuary 5,1932.

It is an object of my invention to provide a device which will arrangethe cutter teeth in proper position to fit Within the magazine, and tofeed them to said magazine automatically.

It is also desired to provide a means for operating the feeding devicewhich will tend to avoid clogging, and a safety drive which will slipwhen clogging occurs, thus avoiding breakage. This application is arevival of my abandoned application No. 297,648, filed August 6th, 1928.

Referring to the drawing herewith, Fig. LB 2. front View of the hopper,certain parts being broken away on the separate planes 11 of Fig. 2 toshow the construction more clearly.

Fig. 2 is a side view mainly in section on the plane 22 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a transverse section on the plane 33 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of one of the cutter teeth to be fed to themagazine.

I mount my device so that gravity will assist in carrying the cutterteeth away from the feeder. The device is therefore mounted upon apedestal 40 1. The hopper 2 is set at an angle to the pedestal with theopen end presented forwardly. and upwardly. Said hopper isfrusto-conical in shape, the outer larger end having an annular plate 3thereon forming an inwardly projecting flange to prevent the teeth fromdropping from the hopper in use.

On the inner wall of the hopper 2 are a series of narrow plates 4 whichextend longitudinally of the hopper from the outer plate 3 and projectfrom the inner end of the hopper to fit along the outer edge of a bottomplate 6 which is rotatable upon a shaft 7. Said plates 4 are weldedtogether and to the hopper wall as shown in Fig. 1 to provide 55 aseries of V-shaped troughs 8 between them 25, 1930. Serial No.

which serve to receive the cutting ends 9 of the teeth 10 which are tobe fed from the machine.

The projecting ends of the plates 4 are welded to the plate 6 on theirinner sides and to a gear ring 11 upon their outer sides, the inner endsof 9 the troughs being thus left open. The bottom plate 6 is slightlytapered toward the central axis thereof from the outer edge, thustending to move the teeth into said troughs. It has a boss 12 on itslower side within which a bearing recess is formed to fit over thebearing shaft 7, which is supported upon a plate 13 secured to a baseplate 14 by means of bolts 15.

The base plate 14 is stationary and is supported upon the pedestal 1.A.housing 16 is secured to its lower side, said housing enclosing theoperating gears from the motor 17 to the hopper. The motor is supportedupon the pedestal and is secured to the lower side of the housing 16with its shaft 18 extending through the lower wall thereof.

On the inner end of the motor shaft 18 is a small gear 19 which mesheswith a larger gear 20 mounted in the housing. A small gear 21 upon theshaft of the gear 20 engages with the larger gear 22 rotatable upon ashaft 23 in the housing wall. This train of gears comprises a commontype of reduction gearing.

On the outer end of the gear 22 is a hub 24 on the outer surface ofwhich is a ring-shaped gear 25 engaging with the gear 11 upon thehopper,

a diametrical opening being formed in the hub 24 within which is fitteda steel ball 26. A spring 27 bears against said ball and against a plug28 in said opening, thus tending to force the ball from said openinginto any one of a plurality of recesses 29 in the inner wall of the gearring 25. A slip clutch is thus provided between the hub 24 and the gearring 25. The ball will clutch the ring to the hub, but when the gear isstopped by any excessive resistance, such as might be set up through theclogging of the feeder, the clutch will slip until the resistance ismoved.

A magazine 30 is connected with the base plate 14 at the upper edge ofsaid plate. Said magazine is triangular in cross section and willreceive the teeth 10 when said teeth are properly registered to droptherein. The upper end of the magazine has a small plate 31 thereon,said plate having an opening 32 therein of the same shape as the end ofthe tooth. Said plate is secured detachably to the base plate, and Wheredifferent sizes of teeth are to be handled, one magazine may besubstituted for another of different size without difficulty. The outermargin 34 of the base plate is 10 beveled to be approximatelyperpendicular to the troughs 4 of the hopper which are closed by saidbeveled face on the base plate, except for the opening 32, previouslynoted.

As will be seen from Fig. 1, the teeth upon the gear ring 25 are spacedwidely apart, and, in the particular embodiment shown but four teeth areformed. The movement imparted to the gear 11 and the hopper is thereforean intermittent one. Each tooth engaging the hopper gear moves onetrough 8 to position registering with the opening 32 to allow a tooth todrop therein, and the next gear tooth moves the next suceeding trough tothe same registering position.

To assist in holding the hopper in registered position at each step inits revolution, I employ a dog 35 shown in Fig. 1, which is pivotedbetween its ends at 36 upon a post upon the frame. One end has a roller37 mounted to rotate thereon and positioned to engage with the teeth ofthe gear 11. The other end of the dog has a spring 38 bearing on thehousing 16 and tending to hold the roller 37 resiliently against saidgear 11.

The operation of the device will now be clear. Teeth 10 are dumped intothe hopper which is rotated through the motor and the intermediate trainof gears. As the hopper rotates, the teeth 10 are caught with the apex 9in the outer troughs and carried around by steps to the opening 32though which they fall by gravity to the magazine. At each step in theintermittent rotation of the hopper, the roller 37 on the dog 35 issnapped into the spaces between adjacent gear teeth and not only holdsthe hopper temporarily in registered position but also imparts a blow tothe gear and hopper which tends to jar the teeth 10 into position and tocause the registered tooth to slide into the magazine. Should a toothcatch in the mouth of the opening 32 and tend to clog the device, theclutch 26 will give sufticiently to prevent injury to the device untilthe tooth is jarred loose or manually removed.

By the use of this device, the teeth may be automatically arranged inthe magazine ready for use.

for use with a specific type of tooth, it is to be understood that theinvention may be modified for different shaped objects in an obviousmanner.

What I claim as new is:

1. In a device of the character described, a downwardly tapered hopperhaving longitudinal While I have shown the device as adapted troughs toreceive irregular shaped objects, means to support said hopper in aninclined position, means to rotate said hopper, a magazine positioned toregister with said troughs as said hopper is rotated, means to hold eachtrough successively into registration with said magazine, and to jarsaid objects into said magazine, and means on said rotating means toallow said hopper to remain stationary when said objects act to clog insaid magazine.

2. In a device of the character described, a hopper having its sidewalls formed with angular longitudinal grooves, a bottom plate securedto said hopper and extending upwardly therein, the periphery of saidplate being spaced from the interior wall of said hopper to form aseries of pockets into which articles may slide when properlyregistered, a magazine positioned to register with said channels toreceive said articles, means to rotate said hopper intermittently tobring said channels in succession adjacent said magazine, and means tojar said articles into said magazine.

3. In a device of the character described, a hopper having its sidewalls formed with angular longitudinal grooves, a bottom plate securedto said hopper and extending upwardly therein, the periphery of saidplate being spaced from the interior wall of said hopper to form aseries of pockets into which articles may slide when properlyregistered, a magazine positioned to register with said channels toreceive said articles, means to rotate said hopper intermittently tobring said channels in succession adjacent said magazine, said meansbeing automatically releasable under excessive resistance whereby saidhopper may remain stationary when an article engages within saidopening, tending to clog the magazine, and means to jar said articlesinto said magazine.

4. In a device of the character described, a hopper rotatable on aninclined axis and having its side walls formed with grooves therein, abottom plate secured to said hopper and having grooves mating with thegrooves in said hopper to form tooth receiving channels, a stationarybase plate having an opening therein to receive a tooth when saidopening is properly registered with said channels, a magazine below saidbase plate opening, and means to move said hopper together with saidbottom plate intermittently to bring said channels successively oversaid opening.

SETH EVANS.

